josh mankiewicz: the lawyer put jean in touch with jim and filled her in on his latest plan, a plan that could only succeed if jean agreed to send jim money. his plan was to get across the border and go from there. and so i d send him yet more money, and allowed him to get out of the country. josh mankiewicz: which wasn t, at that point, a crime since there were no charges against jim. at this point, no. josh mankiewicz: and here s where our story takes another bizarre turn. while jean huden, the wife jim had cheated on for years, was willing to stand by her man and help him escape the mexico, police learned that peggy thomas, jim huden s lover and alleged accomplice, was now willing to give him up. i m not involved in this. ok. josh mankiewicz: in this interview with detectives, peggy thomas said that in a phone call shortly before he fled to mexico, jim had confessed
jean huden says her husband was sure of only two things the cops would be back and he had no intention of ever wearing prison orange. jean huden: he d tell me, you will never see me in a jumpsuit, meaning jail or prison clothes. he was like, no. he had every intention of killing himself before it came to that. josh mankiewicz: which brings us back to that hurricane, hurricane charley. jean says that after the storm passed, jim asked her to drive him to miami. he told her he wanted to spend one last night alone, drinking and gambling in a casino there, before he committed suicide. and i d left him with about $4,000 or $5,000, a bunch of pills, and he was going to go off and take himself out somewhere. you were crying. i was hysterical. was he crying? jean huden: yes, he was. he was. and so i drove away thinking that was the last time i was
by the spring of 2011, russel douglas had been dead for more than seven years. his suspected killer was still on the loose because the only person on earth who knew his true whereabouts wasn t talking to detectives. jean huden: i mean, they ve been watching me for years. they ve tapped my phones. and police we re pretty sure that you were still in contact with jim? well, sure, they had a good idea. and they were right. of course they were. [music playing] josh mankiewicz: the man no longer known as buck naked had been able to build a new life for himself in mexico, and even played the occasional gig. jean huden: well, he was in vera cruz, mexico. i actually went down there a few times to see him, and of course, to bring him more money. he was teaching music to kids in a music school down there. i d fly up to dulles airport and then out to kansas and then
she was a whole lot of gorgeous woman. and a guitar man with a dark side. jim, at one point, had told me that he wanted to know what it felt like to kill somebody. josh mankiewicz: when dateline continues.
then came a question investigators thought would certainly get jim s attention interrogator: who s bill hill? he s a friend of mine who lives here. bass player. interrogator: mm. does that surprise you, that i brought up that name? ye yes. interrogator: why? because you re from whidbey island? interrogator: would it surprise you that i ve been talking to him almost daily for the last week and a half? yeah, it would surprise me. i just wanted to see a reaction. up until that point, he was playing it pretty cool. and i think i got the reaction i was hoping for. it kind of deflated him a bit. so we re at truth or dare time, jim. yeah. you know what you ve told bill. he s your best friend in the whole world. the guy s falling apart over this literally, falling apart over the guilt he s carrying aroundecause you told him what you did.